Teenager thrown out of train for denying bribe to police

PATNA, India — A 12-year old Indian snack vendor had to have his leg amputated after railway police threw him out of a moving train when he failed to pay them 10 rupees (20 cents) as a bribe, officials said Friday. Mohammed Shahabuddin’s left leg was almost severed and had to be amputated below the knee, said N.K. Mishra, a surgeon at a state-run hospital in Muzaffarpur in eastern Bihar state.

Railway police guards were patrolling the train near Muzaffarpur on Thursday when they asked Mohammed for 10 rupees for permission to sell snacks there. The boy offered the policemen five rupees, which was all the money he had, but they threw him out of the train, said Amit Lodha, a railway police superintendent.

Efforts were on to identify the policemen, Lodha said. Police were also investigating allegations that the policemen roughed up passengers who tried to intervene.

Mohammed was in a hospital Friday, where doctors described his condition as stable. Bihar is known as India’s most lawless state, and corruption is rampant among government employees. Muzaffarpur is about 80 kilometers (50 miles) north of Patna, Bihar’s capital.